Society Gists

A former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has again queried the controversy trailing the academic history of President Bola Tinubu.

Atiku, who is currently praying a United States of America court to prevail on the Chicago State University to clarify the inconsistency in the certificates it issued to President Tinubu, said unless a clarification is made, it is difficult, if not impossible, for the public to understand the academic journey of the former Lagos State Governor.

Taking to his verified X handle @atiku on Sunday, Atiku wrote, “I woke up this morning wondering how we got to this cul de sac. In 1999, @officialABAT (Bola Ahmed Tinubu) claimed he attended St John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos, before proceeding to Children Home School in Ibadan.

“According to him, his next port of call in his educational journey was Government College Ibadan, and Richard Daley College and Chicago State University in the United States. Curiously, in 2023, Tinubu settled with attending only Chicago State University.

“I am scratching my head. How is that possible? Methinks that all well-meaning Nigerians should be as confused as I am with Tinubu’s declaration that he had no primary and secondary education, yet he has a university degree. You may wish to ask Tinubu how he attained this feat so that we can learn from his ingenuity.”

He accompanied the post with a laughing emoji.

Atiku and the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, are both challenging the declaration of Tinubu by the Independent National Electoral Commission as the winner of the February 25 election.

Reacting, the Publicity Director of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Bala Ibrahim, said Atiku is a bad sportsman who is clinging to anything to spite the president.

He said, “Politicians have a way of doing things that at times makes one wonder whether they are doing it for the betterment of the polity or simply to spite the system as a whole. For someone who has come all the way in Nigerian politics like Atiku Abubakar, I don’t think he is being advised correctly. He is one person who has faced countless accusations from political opponents. Almost all of them were quashed because they lacked merits, nonsensical and sometimes ridiculous.

“But for him to come back and be doing the same or even worse than what was done to him means that he is dancing to the tune of these political mediocre. It may not go down well, and posterity may not give him a good verdict if he continues this way. He is acting like a bad sportsman.”